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Not always so easy. My roommate in college was supposed to dog sit for a few nights for some lady but she couldn't, so she asked me to do it. She told me it's a nice lady with a house in a nice neighborhood, no problem!
My friend lied...she had never met this lady and never had been to her house. It was 2 large dogs and I was told I had to stay over night and walk them each day. The house was in the woods with minimal neighbors, and creepy. It was old and the DirecTV kept cutting out due to rain. I figured I'd let the dogs out late and come back early in the AM to walk them. The second I got back to my dorm the owner called me on my cell asking where I was. I said I ran back to school (5 minutes down the road) to grab my books. She didn't buy it and 'scolded' me. So back to the house I go, and sure enough she calls me on the HOUSE phone to make sure I'm there. Overnight I discovered I was allergic to her dogs. Great. The next day I try walking them, again, 2 very large dogs, and they almost killed me by pulling me toward passing cars (high rate of speed on a windy woodsy road). It seemed like they had never been walked before (yes I have experience with dogs) So that was their only walk.
She called each night at random, late times to make sure I was there. So here I was at this creepy house in the woods with no TV and a very old computer with dial up, no iphone yet (this was over 10 years ago) and nothing to do but cough & sneeze.
When she came back she asked me to sit again. I told her nope.
Newsflash dogs aren't cats. And your friend is a liar.....totally different situation than the OP's.
She said she would do it if they weren't able to find a replacement. It doesn't matter why she doesn't like it. She doesn't like it.
If it is a live in job, it is kind of touchy for her to offer to find a 'stranger' to replace herself because a person isn't comfortable having 'just anybody' live in their house. I wouldn't be.
If it were me, I would do it because I follow through on commitments and I hate to be a flake.
What on earth is stressful about feeding a cat and watering plants? Cats are pretty independent and sleep something like 18 hours a day. Put out food and water and clean the litter box takes about 10 minutes and pet the cat/play with it for 15 minutes or so. Plants only need to be watered every four days or so if they're indoors.
If this is too stressful, I'm wondering what you do for a living?
I don't get this either. Cats are so easy to take care of and unless one of the plants is a man eating plant, is she kidding?
You want stressed out, I volunteered to go check and walk on a coworkers two dogs while they were away. Two collies, a mother and son. I had them in the fenced in backyard when the son somehow bolted over a fairly high fence and off he went....LOL.
I had to track him down and it took awhile. After the initial shock of seeing a dog hurdle over that fence, I was beside myself with thinking how do I explain this one if I can't find him.
Newsflash dogs aren't cats. And your friend is a liar.....totally different situation than the OP's.
No crap. I'm just giving an example as to why it's not always so easy. The OP has not given all of the details surrounding his/her reasoning as to why they hate it, so I was just sharing my experience.
You are not obligated to do the same thing in September. If you hate it, you hate it. Don't do the next one in September if you hate it. Your friend can board the cats and find someone else to water the plants. This is part of what comes with being a pet owner.
Hairballs ... cat .. Vaseline on the front paws. Cheap and it works. Cat licks paws .. Vaseline goes into system (safe) and hairballs just don't happen or if they do they come out the right end, not in vomit all over the place.
Suck it up and do the 10 day since you already agreed to it. After this, stop accepting house sitting jobs since they stress you out. It's that simple.
You are not obligated to do the same thing in September. If you hate it, you hate it. Don't do the next one in September if you hate it. Your friend can board the cats and find someone else to water the plants. This is part of what comes with being a pet owner.
You're not obligated to do something you made a commitment to? Good grief! What kind of friend are you?
People hate all kinds of things yet we suck it up and do it. Most people hate going to work every day, but they still do it!
Boarding cats is not nearly as easy as it sounds. If they haven't been boarded and are older, it will stress them out like crazy. Cats stress incredibly easy and can end up terminally ill from stress.
You're not obligated to do something you made a commitment to? Good grief! What kind of friend are you?
People hate all kinds of things yet we suck it up and do it. Most people hate going to work every day, but they still do it!
Boarding cats is not nearly as easy as it sounds. If they haven't been boarded and are older, it will stress them out like crazy. Cats stress incredibly easy and can end up terminally ill from stress.
This is not a friend. This is just someone who needs a house-sitter and is willing to pay for that. The OP is not a professional house/pet-sitter. The OP did a "trial period" and figured out this job is not for her. Unless she has signed a contract, she has no obligation to do the second period of house-sitting. The person who is looking for the house-sitter has plenty of time to arrange for obtaining the services of a professional house-sitter.
Even if it was a friend, she is not obligated to do the second round of house-sitting. It's pretty simple to hire someone who does this professionally.
Our sitting experience both for us and by us involved plants, flowers in and out, draining the occasional steam radiator, cats, dogs, mail, mailing a replacement of something that was stolen by TSA, turning different lights on and off at different times to look like someone was home, picking up important packages, making sure mail didn't get wet, etc. It can be a lot of work...but that's what you sign on for. Maybe you underestimated the work.
Are you driving back and forth or just staying in one house?
If you're staying in the house, maybe you're allergic to something that shows itself by making you tense and irritable.
I have watched friends' homes in emergencies, cared for their pets and plants, worried over their heating system in bad weather, did a lot of outdoor watering in the summer. And drove back and forth taking care of my own home and my own life schedule.
But I knew that going in. Perhaps your friend has a house much larger than yours that you are unfamiliar with?
Our own favorite house sitters are mom and daughter, which is great in that they can switch off.
We have had sitters who stopped at our home en route from their full time jobs to their own homes.
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